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Preparation

In a saucepan heat cream over moderately low heat until warm. While cream is heating, in a 3-quart heavy saucepan melt butter over moderate heat and stir in brown sugar. Cook sugar mixture, stirring occasionally, until mixture is bubbling all over and appears smooth, about 5 minutes. Carefully add warm cream (mixture will bubble and steam) and cook over moderately low heat, stirring, until sugar mixture is dissolved, about 1 minute. Remove pan from heat.

In a large metal bowl or top of a double boiler whisk together milk, yolks, cornstarch, and salt. Add warm butterscotch mixture in a slow stream, whisking constantly, and set bowl or top of double boiler over a saucepan of simmering water. Cook pudding, whisking constantly, 10 minutes, or until it begins to thicken. Cover bowl or top of double boiler and cook pudding, whisking occasionally, 10 minutes more.

Remove bowl or top of double boiler from pan and cool pudding 5 minutes, whisking occasionally. Divide hot pudding among six 1-cup ramekins or other heatproof dishes. Chill puddings, covered (if you don't want skins to form) or uncovered (if you do want skins to form), until cold, at least 3 hours, and up to 2 days. Serve puddings topped with whipped cream.

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Recent Reviews

Worked out great, and is a surprisingly flexible recipe for a pudding. I made the following modifications: used light brown sugar plus a bit of molasses, used skim milk not whole, and I don't have a double boiler so I used the same small pot as for heating the sugar and butter together. I also cooked for only 5 minutes after thickening. Even with those modifications it tastes fabulous, and I had no trouble with it thickening or getting lumpy.

Go_Steelers from St. Louis, MO /

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This turned out
beautifully. I made
it on vacation and
everyone in the
house was addicted.
I followed the
recipe to the
letter, but added a
tablespoon of
bourbon while
cooking down the
mixture, which I
thought added an
extra depth to the
flavor. And I can't
resist
making a comment to
the reviewer who
"wouldn't touch"
this recipe because
of fat and
cholesterol: no fair
giving it one fork
if you haven't even
tried it! Either
practice portion
control or just move
along, but don't
skew the ratings.

A Cook from New York, NY /

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Ah, butterscotch! How lovely! *Very* nice fatty sweet/salty flavor on this pudding.
It occurs to me that the order of adding the yolks and cornstarch here is wrong, wrong, wrong. I made it tonight, heated the pudding up enough to thicken -- and got that grainy overcooked egg texture.
I will try this recipe again using the classic method of heating the milk/cornstarch mixture to thicken, tempering the egg yolks with a dollop of the mixture, then whisking them in. I suspect that approach will take care of the texture problems.

megmuck from boston, ma /

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This is a delicious recipe--my husband went crazy for it. I liked the unsweetened whipped cream and nutmeg on top, too. The only problem I had was with the pudding setting. I think I started out with the water not hot enough, so I think the pudding never got as hot as it should have (even though I left it on the heat for about 5 minutes longer). The recipe didn't say anything about heating to the boil, which I thought cornstarch needed to do in order to thicken. The final consistency is a bit runnier than I'd have preferred--next time I'll let it heat more.

A Cook from Arlington, VA /

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I am the kind of person who prefers butterscotch to chocolate (call me crazy) and let me assure you this recipe is delicious. I reduce the cornstarch to 3 Tablespoons and cook it slightly longer - I've made it about ten times now, and always get rave reviews. The nutmeg and whipped cream are superb compliments, but I've been known to dive in without.